CALEY Thistle boss John Hughes wants his players to learn form their mistakes after last week's calamitous defeat to the Bhoys ahead of his sides Premiership match against Dundee United today

ICT goalkeeper Dean Brill shows his frustration after conceeding a thrid goal in his side's 6-0 to Celtic

JOHN HUGHES wants his Inverness players to use the hurt of their Celtic Park hammering to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself today.

The Caley Thistle boss knows only too well the previous thrashing by Neil Lennon’s men was followed by a 5-0 calamity at home to Dundee United in the Scottish Cup.

This time, though, Yogi is confident lessons have been learned from the 6-0 walloping at Parkhead last Sunday after spending the week rebuilding morale.

Hughes is well aware United will be driven on by their Scottish Cup date with destiny and insists his players will rise to the challenge.

He said: “We have been picking them up again from last weekend although it’s not too hard because they do it for themselves.

“What we did at Celtic was come off the gameplan because we felt sorry for ourselves after losing the first goal.

“You then leave yourself wide open to the embarrassment that it turned into. We were playing against a Celtic side who can do that to teams if they are at it.

“Celtic is not our fight. It’s the rest of the teams that are our fight.

“You also learn in defeat and hopefully next time you are better for it.

“We want to restore a bit of pride in this match against a Dundee United team that are coming off a good result against Motherwell.

“United will be wanting to cement that fourth spot – and Jackie McNamara has done a wonderful job as United play some lovely football.

“They have a lot of talented young kids in the team while they have also a cup final to look forward to.

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Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Hughes

“I am convinced every one of United’s starting line-up will want to put in a man-of-the-match performance to make sure Jackie can’t leave them out from now until cup final day.

“That’s what we’re up against but that’s the challenge we expect.

“We’ll see if we can take the game to them and hopefully the three points can stay here in Inverness.”

Hughes has seen his team toil recently with only two wins in their last 12 matches.

The promise of European football has all but faded but the manager has been quick to remind his players that a top-six finish and cup final appearance is no bad return for a club of Inverness’s stature. Hughes said: “We’ve had a wonderful season and if we can get a victory on Saturday we’ve still got Dundee United within our sights.

“So it’s all to play for. We have St Johnstone chasing us but we’re desperate to finish as high as we can.

“We are a better team than we showed at Celtic. You are not in the top six and a national cup final for nothing.

“Everything I’ve seen of these players suggests they are better than sixth.

“To be in the top six again having reached a cup final is a great achievement but it’s done and dusted. We have to keep kicking on.”

Hughes is still smarting from the last heavy defeat to United in early March.

He said: “The early goal in that game was self-inflicted. We gave them a wee head start and then decisions went against us.

“If you make mistakes against a team of Dundee United’s calibre you leave yourselves wide open.

“But if we play our game, work hard, get a strong referee and pass it the way we have been passing it, it should be a right good game.”